I could pretty much never cry at anything, no matter how much I wanted to, until I saw that film, in particular the scene where (ROT-13): juvyr Pbyr vf bhg orvat hasnvgushy, Yvaqn Cbegre fvgf ybbxvat ng ure ersyrpgvba va gur zveebe naq n grne ebyyf qbja ure purrx. [1]
I suddenly found myself crying, and it was quite a remarkable feeling. I think it was the first time my wife ever saw tears in my eyes after 18 years together. What a liberating, cathartic experience!
At first, I thought it was just a one-off, but I loved the film so much that I watched it again a few days later, and had exactly the same reaction at the same point in the film. Since then, I’ve been able to cry more easily, and I’m grateful to the makers of that film for allowing what must have been an emotional block to be at least partially removed.
[1] Sorry about the ROT-13’d spoiler. You can go here to decode it. I would have used the standard black-on-black table, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it - if anyone could PM or email me instructions, I’d appreciate it.
We Were Soldiers - The telegrams, not so much because of the wives’ reactions, but because of what the taxi cab driver said after Mrs. Moore snapped his head off for making her think her husband had died (he pulled up to her house to ask for directions to another house).
“Ma’am… I don’t like this job. I’m just trying to do it.”
Something about that, how utterly destroyed the man feels for what he has to do, just gets me. Another part, later in the movie, that tears me up a bit is Snakeshit coming in to land at the LZ after the napalm strike, looking out the window to see the cocky photojournalist he brought in earlier, now walking up to the chopper in a state of shellshock carried a mortally wounded soldier in his arms.
Another vote for Saving Private Ryan and “Tell me I lead a good life…”
Just to break rank here, I’m gonna throw in a vote for an Adam Sandler movie, Click.
“For Christ’s sake, would you LOOK AT THE MAN?!” and then the scene near the very end, in the rain.
And a vote for a sci-fi TV movie, Babylon 5: In The Beginning, during the “Two Years” montage towards the end of the movie, leading up to the Battle of the Line.
But my husband cried, a LOT, when we watched “What Dreams May Come.” To tell the truth, the movie wrecked us both (though making me cry in a movie is no challenge–you’re talking to the girl who breaks down to radio jewelry ads.)
The moment where Chris descends into Annie’s hell to rescue her but cannot reach her through her severe depression and denial, and so chooses to spend the rest of his life with her and the mad world she has constructed… thus liberating them both.
This had a special impact on my husband, because he did this for me. Few people understand the heroic strength it takes to stay with a loved one who is psychologically ill. Dom understands because he chose to stay… he caught hell for it, but he did it, and in my eyes there is no one stronger or more courageous. There is nothing glorious or romantic about depression… it’s ugly, and boring, and gross… he made me eat food, he made me get out of bed when I hadn’t bathed in days, he dropped everything and packed my suitcases when I was off to the hospital… and nobody’s standing around cheering him on for this. He did it quietly and patiently and without complaint. Nobody truly understands what he endured for me, except maybe me–and even that’s questionable. In short, he chose my hell over any number of possible heavens.
And because he did this, I slowly began to recognize that I was worth saving and life was worth living. This movie is not actually the stuff of fantasy. It is an absolute truth of our lives.
I think the movie so moved him because finally someone, somewhere, was recognizing his strength and his struggle… and gave him hope for a payoff. He often has felt so alone in this, and finally someone understood. At the time, I was still severely depressed. Now, we are surrounded by so many blessings that it is clear the struggle is worth it. As I said on our wedding day, “Because you have endured the very worst of me, I vow to give you my very best.” And I have.
See? I took a perfectly respectable thread and “girlified” it. Sorry.
I caught my husband getting ready to squirt some tears watching Herbie the Love Bug (the new one, Reloaded or whatever.) I threatened to take him immediately to the psych ward or slap a testosterone patch on him.
I’ve seen this and rank it as the very saddest movie I have ever seen, EVER. I cried from the first scene to the last without going longer than a couple of minutes in between fresh teardrop spills. The tone of the film is so matter-of-fact that you feel like you’re watching a documentary at times, which makes it even more painful.
Okay. Because you are talking about this heartwrenching French film. I gotta share this.
When I was no more than about 7, my brother was 9 1/2-ish, we were left alone while our parents went right across the street to a neighbor’s party. Just a for a few hours. We were fine. And, to keep us mollified, our parents let us watch t.v. the whole time. ( A big deal in our house ).
The film Gigot ran. We watched it. It is heartbreaking- unlike anything Jackie Gleason ever did as far as I can tell. The end came, and I was sobbing. Literally sobbing. It just trashed me.
As I am sitting on the floor sobbing ( with a brother who couldn’t figure out how to console me ), my parents walked in. They were furious with my brother for torturing me to the point of tears.
I did try to tell them that he hadn’t done anything. Find this movie. Rent it. Cry, cry, cry.
Some more we came up with…
My husband has cried while viewing the following films:
Life is Beautiful
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Click
The Breakup (yes, the Jennifer Anniston/Vince Vaughn chick flick.)
He swears up and down that he never cried during movies until he started watching them with me. He says being in a relationship will transform you into an embarrassing blubbering sap if you’re not careful.
Has anyone mentioned Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind? I went to see it with a male friend and as we were leaving the theatre, he admitted; “When it started to rain, I lost it.”
My immediate reaction; “You are amazing, take me now [to the Indian Buffet because I am starving]!”
Iron Giant
Flight 93
Armageddon (“We win, Gracie!”)
Braveheart
Blackhawk Down
Schindler’s List (when he breaks down at the end)
Waking Ned Devine (not crying in a sad way, but a happy way)
Titanic (not the crappy Jack/Rose story, but the tales of real people, like Isador and Ida Strauss going to their cabin to die together).
From some miniseries:
From The Earth To The Moon, in the episode Apollo 1 when Jan Armstrong (Ann Cusack) goes to tell Pat White (Jo Anderson) that her husband just died on the launchpad during the plugs-out test; nothing is said, it’s all done with looks. And the episode The Original Wives Club gets to me, too.
Band of Brothers; too many instances to mention.
From TV:
The Shield: the season 5 finale when Shane kills Lem.
Incredible. Flirted with twice, in one week, in Cafe Society. I’m so glad to be back! I re-upped to defend my Queen - who knew it would pay off so extravagantly?
How about a couple of scenes from “Why we fight” when they liberate the concentration camp? Like when the emaciated shattered victim shakily walks up to one of the soldiers and kisses them on the cheek? Or when the other one saluted?
Or the scene when Capt. Winters tells Liebgott to tell the prisoners that they would have to stay a few more days in that hell hole of a camp until suitable quarters and medical care could be arranged?
Or in the ep. Breaking Point, when Easy Co. rests for a while in the convent, with the sister conducting the girls choir while 1SG Lipton recites the company’s losses, each man fading away as his name/cause of death is recited?
Hell, even the German General’s speech got to me, in the ep. Points.
I can go on like this for a while. What’s your point?
